4-Bay NAS Choice

[Curufinwe_wins]

Hello everyone,

 

It is time I get a nas setup here, and I am currently looking at 4 Bay (or more) options. I don't have a hard price limit, but I also don't want to throw money at the issue willy-nilly, so lets pretend without disks I'm looking at 500 USD cap.

It will need to hold a large video/file array (non-encrypted) as well as scheduled backups of my main pc.

 

At current US pricing, in parenthesis that puts these 3 main options in my sights:

 

Synology DS416 (450)

• Pros:
  • Newest
  • Synology OS
• Cons:
  • Slowest cpu by far (32 bit)
  • 1GB ram non-upgradable

QNAP TS451 (410)

• Pros:
  • 1GB User upgradable ram
  • Slightly faster writes (160 vs 140 MBps)
• Cons:
  • Oldest variant (closest to EoL)
  • Plastic sleds

QNAP TS451+ (480) 

• Pros:
  • Fastest
  • 2 GB User upgradable ram
• Cons:
  • Plastic sleds

In the end, I really don't care much about PLEX capabilities, I'm totally ok with using local resources to play video instead (esp given my local resources). I'd like to see if anyone has feedback in particular about these three or if there is another one you would recommend somewhat near price point (the DS415+ is a stretch from what I can tell so far).

 

I've hear synology's OS is by far the best out there, but what do you guys think?

[Curufinwe_wins]

Alternatively, if someone can recommend a parts list for a dyi freenas build with a similar end cost, I would totes do that as well.

[MrWazoo]

Oooh, If anyone has any good ideas, this would help me aswell.

[Curufinwe_wins]

2 hours ago, MrWazoo said:

Oooh, If anyone has any good ideas, this would help me aswell.

I ended up buying parts for my own one via freeNAS mainly so I could expand past 4 drives in the future since 5+ bay OTS NAS systems are insanely expensive.

[d33g33]

I run a Synology, and its no secret I endorse them strongly. I've never received any benefits from them but I find their support out standaing. Usually they offer same performance at slightly cheaper cost than a QNAP.

 

I run a DS1511+ and a DX510, i could in theory add another DX510(DX513). It is running a 1.6ghz floating point single core and 1gb of ram which is well under what these are spec'd at and I have no issues in a heavy use home environment. Its capable of 160mb/s reads without issue to multiple clients if it has to, or sending out 46gb bluray remux's down to the HTPC. I was running around 18tb across 10disks on a 22tb volume.

I found when looking at building your own the dependency that FreeNAS seems to have on RAM (recommended 1gb per 1tb if im right) and having to get raid cards that big arrays (10+ disks) its hard to do it cheaper than a Synology.

What sells it for me is when something crashes, do you have the knowledge and expertise to fix it? Synology have a great support mech and have helped me repair my raid more than once and saved my data. That's why I like them...

My 2 cents...

[Curufinwe_wins]

18 minutes ago, d33g33 said:

I run a Synology, and its no secret I endorse them strongly. I've never received any benefits from them but I find their support out standaing. Usually they offer same performance at slightly cheaper cost than a QNAP.

 

I run a DS1511+ and a DX510, i could in theory add another DX510(DX513). It is running a 1.6ghz floating point single core and 1gb of ram which is well under what these are spec'd at and I have no issues in a heavy use home environment. Its capable of 160mb/s reads without issue to multiple clients if it has to, or sending out 46gb bluray remux's down to the HTPC. I was running around 18tb across 10disks on a 22tb volume.

I found when looking at building your own the dependency that FreeNAS seems to have on RAM (recommended 1gb per 1tb if im right) and having to get raid cards that big arrays (10+ disks) its hard to do it cheaper than a Synology.

What sells it for me is when something crashes, do you have the knowledge and expertise to fix it? Synology have a great support mech and have helped me repair my raid more than once and saved my data. That's why I like them...

My 2 cents...

Yea... I totes understand that. QNAP was about 10% cheaper, and DYI was right around the same price as the TS451+, but the thing that really sold it was the future applications.

 

I have little to no doubts that in the future I would want more than a 4 drive array, and the same price config included 8 GB of ECC ram (only one of 4 dimms populated), and this motherboard... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GG94YDS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00 

 

Which straight up is the most insane shit ever, and I won't need a raid card basically ever (I mean 12 drives before I need a raid or HBA card). Plus in the future when 10 Gb comes down in price I can add that as well.

 

I do miss out on support, although the free nas community is pretty sick (just like us here for general issues), and I also lose hot swap capabilities (my current chassis for this build will be a Node 304 for silent operation and up to 6 drives off the bat).

 

IDK if it is worth it, I'll let you know sometime next week when this is all said and done...

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($124.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($124.99 @ B&H) 
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($124.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($66.50 @ Newegg) 
Other: ASRock Rack Mini ITX DDR3 1333 Motherboards C2550D4I ($299.99)
Total: $855.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-11 05:50 EST-0500

 

Just under 500 diskless.

[d33g33]

Mmm I know that board. Sick as fk.

Good luck man! Will be good to have some sweet sweet network storage

[leadeater]

QNAP fan myself. I rate Synology and QNAP equal when comparing their products at the same price point etc. What you've done will beat out both anyway so no matter 

 

Got a friend who actually runs the Synology OS on custom built NAS hardware, user group has released the software online and keeps it up to date. Not as good as FreeNAS but still an interesting choice if you want to do a cheaper build without ECC etc.

 

 

[Aekim]

If you want to go with freenas and itx it's a great choice.

You could get away cheaper with an other OS and (bigger)consumer hardware.
AMD fm2 and unraid work pretty well for me and you have a lot of SATA ports, too. Or Intel with a z87/97 board and a Celeron should do it, too